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OVERVIEW

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Brief Synopsis

When a flight crew falls ill, the only man who can land the plane is afraid of flying.

In the final weeks of World War II, Ted Stryker, a Canadian squadron leader in the Royal Air Force, leads a raid on the German town of Wiesbaden. Though the target area is covered by fog, Ted does not abort the mission and six of his blinded planes crash into the German countryside. The seriously wounded Ted survives the disastrous mission, but blames himself for the death of his men. Eleven years later, Ted applies for a job in the Jet Research division of the Mid-Canadian Aircraft Co., Ltd., located in Winnipeg, Canada. Despite Ted's poor employment record since the war, his old friend Frank Graham agrees to hire him, and Ted returns home to celebrate the good news with his wife Ellen and son Joey. Instead, he finds a note from Ellen, stating that she is leaving him. Ted rushes to the airport just in time to book passage on her plane to Vancouver, despite the fear of flying he developed after the war. Aboard the plane, Ted asks Ellen to give him another chance, but she refuses, arguing that he has never stopped running from his mistake over Wiesbaden. Midway through the flight, some of the passengers begin to suffer debilitating stomach cramps, so the stewardess, Janet Turner, asks Dr. Baird, a physician aboard the flight, to examine them. Baird tells Capt. Bill Wilson to land the plane immediately, so the sick passengers can be taken to the hospital, only to learn that poor weather conditions make such action impossible. Soon thereafter, co-pilot Stewart passes out, and Baird quickly determines that the problem is food poisoning, as all the passengers who dined on grilled halibut have become deathly ill. Soon, Bill is overcome with food poisoning as well, though he manages to put the airplane on autopilot before collapsing. Asked by the stewardess if he can revive the pilot in time to land the plane, Baird tells Janet he is not even sure he can save the sick passengers' lives unless they receive prompt medical attention at a hospital, as they seem to be suffering from a deadly bacterial infection. Janet then surveys the passengers for anyone with flying experience, and finds Ted to be the only one. In the cockpit, Baird informs Ted that he is the only person aboard capable of landing the plane, even though he has never flown such a large aircraft. Ted then takes the pilot's seat and contacts Canadian air traffic control, asking for guidance in flying the plane. At the Vancouver airport, senior controller Harry Burdick calls in Captain Martin Treleaven to help with the emergency, as Treleaven flew with Ted during the war, but it is quickly apparent that the two intensely disliked each other. With Ellen acting as his co-pilot, Ted takes control of the plane and Treleaven teaches him how to fly the aircraft with its landing gear down. Soon, Ted begins having flashbacks to the war and nearly loses control of the plane. Regaining level flight, Ted and Ellen temporarily lose radio contact with Treleaven, but reestablish it thirty minutes outside Vancouver. As the city's emergency forces prepare for a possible crash landing, fog envelopes Vancouver. Though Treleaven orders Ted to circle the city until the fog breaks, Ted insists on landing the plane immediately, as the sick passengers, including Joey, are in critical condition. As they prepare to land, Ellen tells Ted how proud she is of him. Although he approaches the airport at too high a speed, Ted manages to land safely, but the plane itself is badly damaged. As the passengers prepare to disembark the plane, Treleaven tells Ted that his landing was probably the worst landing in the history of the airport, but he still wishes to shake his hand and congratulate him on it.